A Life-Sized Replica Of Noah’s Ark Set To Open In Kentucky Features Dinosaurs In Cages, Because Why Not

A Christian group in Kentucky has spent over $100 million building a 510-foot-long replica of Noah’s Ark to build a tourist attraction that will be opening up this week. The attraction, built in Williamstown, Kentucky by the Christian group Answers in Genesis, features replica animals stuffed inside of cages inside of the giant ark, built from Biblical descriptions to scale, including dinosaurs.

According to the LA Times, the ark will be teaching a very Christian attempt at science by featuring dinosaurs as a part of the exhibit, even though there is no scientific way any of that makes sense considering dinosaurs existed more than 65 million years ago, long before science has been able to prove humanity in its current form ever existed. The project was stalled out, funding-wise, before Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham would publicly debate Bill Nye about evolution via the Internet, which turned into a publicity stunt that was able to kickstart the project and allow them to raise enough money to finish the project.

One of the major points of contention over the park — other than scientific inaccuracies — is that the project was given government tax incentives valued up to $18 million. Locals have been critical of the project and the tax incentives for a project that is clearly religious in nature and has no real links to science, including Jim Helton of the Tri-State Freethinkers.

“Basically, this boat is a church raising scientifically illiterate children and lying to them about science.”

Regardless of the criticism or stalled funding and derision from former television science guys, the project is completed and will be open to the public starting on Thursday, July 7th, 2016.

It’s so great that we can all point and laugh at these people for their beliefs. I’d love to see how an article mocking Jewish or Muslim beliefs would go over.

The tax breaks are for the tourism aspect and the government expecting a return on their investment from the visitors spending money in the local economy that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. This is pretty basic stuff…

Counterpoint to your screed about Muslims and Jews getting special treatment, would a similarly-themed Muslim or Jewish “tourist site” receive government funding in Kentucky? No? Ask yourself why. And then you can promptly STFU about Christians being treated unfairly when they receive TAXPAYER MONEY to build crap like this.

If a Jewish or Muslim group ever made a statue outside a synagogue or mosque that depicted Abraham or [REDACTED] riding a dinosaur like they’re the God damn Star Lord, then I’d be the first one to mock them saying that is stupid as fuck.

But that’s beside the point. When science has proven that man and dinosaur did not share space on the planet, you don’t get to believe that Chris Pratt taming dinosaurs in Jurassic world is based on human history. Changing scientific fact is what we are mocking here. These nut jobs are trying to pass a magic boat used to save all the animals on the planet, which then incestually repopulated their species with no genetic changes or evolution since flood time, as real science. And some poor children are going to grow up not understanding that this is a fucking story and allegory, instead BELIEVING THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. And that’s wrong, unfair to future generations, and dangerous. You can believe whatever myths you personally believe in, I was raised Catholic and I really don’t care how you choose to live, but being able to separate fact from fiction is a critical life skill, and this abomination is designed to do the opposite of that

The $100 million dollars from the Christian group Is private. It wasn’t donated at all. The government sees $100 in private money being spent in their local economy so they give a tax break. It has nothing to do with the religious affiliation. The park creates jobs which are taxed, brings in Christian tourists who will buy tickets which are taxed and those tourists spend money in the local economy which is taxed. They incentivize that business to stay in their state. This is such a basic concept, I can’t believe people don’t understand it.

People believe plenty of irrational things. We live in a place where YOU don’t get to tell them what to believe.

Israel is an entire country that has a huge government funded tourism program that share half a religious text full of beliefs with Christians. We don’t mock that. We don’t mock the kosher section in that you find in every grocery store. We don’t mock Muslim beliefs because we are afraid of a Charlie Hebdo situation. We don’t mock a trans person that was born with male genetalia but claims they are female. This park is privately funded and so who cares what they believe?

Has science proven that there is no creator? Frankly, I don’t know what is more unbelievable… an infinitely large universe or multiverse or a god like creator.

As someone who was born & raised in Kentucky, every time someone brings up this Noah’s ark replica and attributes it to Kentucky I feel the need to point out that the person behind all of this is a crazy Australian bullshit artist who just happens to live in Kentucky.

I’m a Baptist and man, this just all seems wrong to me. The concept was great (for christians, I wouldn’t expect anyone else to care at all one way or another) but once they took taxpayer money to make it happen… I feel like that’s a constitutional issue. Now there are dinosaurs on there? Man, people who demand that you take certain parts of the bible literally while other parts are metaphor (parts they have personally decided upon) are the worst and make us all look bad.